


that's what you do

by misspamela



Category: Feel Special - TWICE (Music Video)
Genre: F/F, Lesbians in Space, im sorry I don't understand space science, just lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28140426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misspamela/pseuds/misspamela
Summary: “Hey!” Chaeyoung yelled, gesturing wildly. The girl waved back. Chaeyoung could hear the wind and trees and animals at night, so she hoped the sound traveled both ways. Apparently it did, because the girl’s head jerked up and she began moving faster, stumbling a little in her impractical shoes. “Hi, oh my god, I’m so happy to see you,” Chaeyoung babbled. “Please, can you just--”The girl pressed herself against the dome, and it was only then that Chaeyoung noticed the look of worry on her face. “Help me,” she said, and Chaeyoung’s heart plummeted. “Please,” she said softly, moving her palms across whatever force field created the dome, her brow knit in concern. “Please help me, I’m lost.”
Relationships: Myoui Mina/Son Chaeyoung
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	that's what you do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [younglegends](https://archiveofourown.org/users/younglegends/gifts).



> Huge thanks to N for cheerleading and beta duties!

Chaeyoung woke with a gasp. She was sleeping-- no. That wasn’t right. She was--

_The proximity alarm wouldn’t stop blaring, red lights flashing everywhere, everything was wrong, the controls were going crazy, she--_

Her head hurt. Chaeyoung opened her eyes. She was in her sleeping chamber, reclined on the bed. But she was, she was-- she shook her head. This wasn’t right. 

_”Signal of unknown origin is hailing the ship. Do you wish to respond?”_

Chaeyoung sat up and rubbed her arms, blinking a few times. She felt fuzzy-headed, but her mind was starting to come back to her. Looking around the room another time, she realized that this was not at all her sleeping chambers. It was too big, for one thing. The console was in the wrong spot. And...where was all her stuff? Her warm slippers? The pile of mostly clean sweaters? Her art supplies? None of it was here. It was a huge, eerie copy of something familiar, which made it a hundred times more creepy. 

“Hey!” she yelled. “Where am I?” 

A pleasant female voice responded immediately. “You are a guest here. You may not leave. A simulation has been provided for your comfort. Meals arrive every six hours per wake cycle. Sanitary facilities are provided for your comfort. Please enjoy your stay. Please do not attempt to leave or you will be subdued.”

Panic rose in her throat. “Where is my ship?” she yelled. “I want my ship, not this bullshit simulation! Let me go!”

“The simulation is provided for your comfort.” 

“I’m not comfortable! I want to go home!” No response. Chaeyoung slid to the floor, curled up, and tried not to cry. She was safe, for now. The room was warm and the air felt fresh, not like the recycled air she was used to. This thing said she was going to be fed; she had to hope that was right. As long as she could stay alive, she could find a way out. She had to. Chaeyoung closed her eyes. _Mom,_ she thought. _I’m so sorry_.

Chaeyoung allowed herself a few minutes of self-pity, but then that got boring so she decided to explore the space. There was a door that led to the sanitary facilities, which were just the standard facilities you’d find on any ship. There were a few slots and buttons set into one part of the dome, but pushing them didn’t do anything. Another opening provided fresh water, which Chaeyoung sniffed suspiciously, terrified that there was going to be something horrible and alien in there that would kill her instantly. “Is this going to kill me?” she asked. 

“It is water. Your biological form requires it for sustenance.” 

She put a little on her tongue, and it tasted like water. Poison was probably a better way to die than dehydration, she supposed. She took a bigger sip. It just seemed to be water, though, so that gave her hope that nobody was trying to kill her. At least, not right away. 

She walked to the wall of the dome and, out of curiosity, touched it to see what would happen. The overlapping tiles flickered, then winked out of existence, the dome clearing away from the touch of her hand.

Outside was an alien world, unlike anything she’d ever seen before. It was a jungle, with dense, lush trees and vines everywhere. But in addition to the usual greenery, there were huge, brightly colored flowers and shining ropes of color that almost looked like living wires. It was hard to tell if it was organic, or tech, or maybe just another illusion. 

She walked around the dome, pressing on the walls as she went, until the whole thing was clear. Whatever the dome was made of, it was still present and solid to the touch, but now Chaeyoung had the uncomfortable sensation of standing alone and unprotected in a strange forest while things rustled and called in the distance. There were no guards, no buildings, nothing visible except the trees and the strange vines and the flowers. Even the sky was barely visible through the foliage overhead. It was creepy. And lonely. And Chaeyoung didn’t know the first thing about trying to survive in a forest back home, never mind here. 

She touched the walls again, let the dome come back, and sat down on the floor to cry.

“The simulation is provided for your comfort.”

“Oh, screw you,” Chaeyoung muttered through her tears. 

There was no answer, so she crawled back on the bed, curled up, and cried herself to sleep. 

******

As promised, food arrived every six hours. They were standard ships’ rations, materializing via some kind of teleportation. They were cold, and tasted a little stale, but they didn’t make her sick and would keep her alive. The question was, what was she alive for? How was she going to get out?

“How long am I here for?” Chaeyoung called out. 

“If you attempt to leave, you will be subdued.”

Chaeyoung blew out a sigh. “Can I have something to do? Why am I a prisoner?”

“Personal technology is not allowed.”

“Can I have a change of clothes? Something to do? Something to read? Hygiene stuff?”

There was a pause, then in one of the larger slots, another outfit, identical to the one she was wearing, materialized. Then, next to it, her makeup case and bag of toiletries. They were all a little too new and slightly off in the coloring, so they were clearly replicas. Chaeyoung didn’t care. She at least had _something_. And maybe someone, some person, would show up to get her out of here. 

Days passed. Nobody came. The voice didn’t speak again, unless Chaeyoung directly spoke to it, and it kept saying the same things. The simulation is provided for your comfort. Do not try to escape. You are a guest. She asked for things from her ship, but they didn’t bring her much. Sometimes the set of clothes she already had. Sometimes another hygiene kit. No electronics. No paper. Nothing to take notes. 

Chaeyoung carefully saved and cleaned the packaging her food had come in, meticulously scrubbing food particles out in the sanitary facilities, then hanging them up to dry. She was worried that her captor -- whoever that was -- would notice, but they never did. After several days, she had some stiff, dry pieces of container that were blank on one side. Between those and her eyeliner from the cosmetics kit, she finally had some basic art supplies. 

She ate her morning rations with a little more excitement than usual, ready to actually do something for once. Once she was done and had cleaned up, she settled herself in front of a blank part of the dome, touched it, and watched the tiles wink away, exposing the moonlit forest beyond. Chaeyoung began to carefully sketch it, taking her time not to smudge the page, following the lines of the trees and the curves of the hanging vines. The more she drew and the more she observed, the more it seemed that the vines _were_ wires, or energy conduits of some kind. There were all kinds of strange bioluminescent creatures in the universe that Chaeyoung had read about, and at first she thought they might be like that, but there were parts that looked clearly artificial. And the glow didn’t seem to be in response to anything environmental. They just. Glowed. Between that and the full, pale moon, there was plenty of light to see by.

In the margins of her drawing, she made careful, abbreviated notes. She didn’t know if she was ever going to get out of here, but she wanted a record just in case. In the back of her mind, she realized she was still counting on her mom to rescue her. Even though she’d taken her ship and run away. Even though her mom didn’t know where she was. _You wanted to be grown up_ , she told herself. _You wanted to be independent. You need to get yourself out of this_.

Pushing thoughts of her mom, and home, out of her head, Chaeyoung began outlining the trunk of the next tree, and then she noticed -- movement. Heart pounding, she dropped her supplies and shot to her feet.

The trees were swaying and the vines -- someone pushed the vines -- a delicate hand came into view, followed by a girl. The most beautiful girl Chaeyoung had ever seen. She looked like the princesses Chayoung had read about in old stories.

Seeing someone else was such a shock that Chaeyoung wasn't sure for a moment if she was dreaming it. That is, until the girl turned and spotted Chaeyoung. She looked startled and pointed, making her way carefully over the branches and vines. She must have seen the light emanating from the dome. 

Oh gosh oh god was she getting rescued? Finally? Chaeyoung couldn't help the huge smile spreading over her face. She was going to be _free_. 

The girl’s dress was enormous, with hoops and heavy jewels, and she was wearing some kind of fancy shoes, so it took her a little bit to make her way over to the dome. 

“Hey!” Chaeyoung yelled, gesturing wildly. The girl waved back. Chaeyoung could hear the wind and trees and animals at night, so she hoped the sound traveled both ways. Apparently it did, because the girl’s head jerked up and she began moving faster, stumbling a little in her impractical shoes. “Hi, oh my god, I’m so happy to see you,” Chaeyoung babbled. “Please, can you just--”

The girl pressed herself against the dome, and it was only then that Chaeyoung noticed the look of worry on her face. “Help me,” she said, and Chaeyoung’s heart plummeted. “Please,” she said softly, moving her palms across whatever force field created the dome, her brow knit in concern. “Please help me, I’m lost.” 

“I-- I can’t.” Chaeyoung stuttered. “I’m stuck. I wanted you to help _me_.” 

The girl’s face froze, then slowly crumbled into tears as she sunk to the ground, looking small in the heap of fluff of her dress. “Oh no,” she whispered. “Where am I?”

Chaeyoung looked behind her nervously. The ever-present voice didn’t seem to care that she was talking to a stranger, or that the girl was touching the dome. Interesting. “I have no idea,” Chaeyoung said, crouching down so she was on the same level of the girl. “Last thing I remember, I was flying my ship. I’d gotten lost, I was trying to find my way back home. There was some kind of-- a scan, I think? It’s hard to remember. I just remember alarms and losing control of the ship and then I woke up here. Imprisoned.” She put her hand out and pressed it to the dome. “I’m Son Chaeyoung, by the way.” 

“Miyoui Mina,” the girl said quietly, her voice choked with tears. She sniffed and pressed the back of her hand to her eyes, blotting away her tears without smearing her makeup. Chaeyoung couldn’t help but be impressed at that level of composure. “I was at a ball. My father-- well. We fought. I got angry and left for a walk in the garden. It was -- it was strange. I’d never been there before. And then I fell...I kept falling and falling and then I was here.” She got quieter and looked down at her hands. “This place looks nothing like the planet I was on. The stars are different. There is only one moon.” 

In other words, it wasn’t the same planet. “Hey.” Chaeyoung tapped against the force field, rolling her eyes at herself when it didn’t make any sound. “Hey,” she said again more forcefully. “Hey, we’re together now. We have a better chance of escaping if it’s the two of us. We’ll figure it out. Okay? Mina-ssi?” Chaeyoung crouched down so she was at Mina’s eye level.

“I don’t have any food,” Mina responded quietly. She seemed lost in despair, looking down at her hands. “I didn’t see anything edible. No water sources. The plants-- I’m not sure they’re real. I don’t know.”

Chaeyoung realized that Mina hadn’t had days of being stranded on an alien planet to think about all the ways she could die alone. She was just scared. “Okay, yeah, I have food here but I don’t know how to get it out. But we can work together, right? You’re not alone, Mina-ssi, I’m here with you.” 

Mina looked up, and really seemed to be seeing Chaeyoung for the first time. Her expression softened into almost a smile. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I’m just… I’ve never been off my home planet without my parents. My father kept me locked up like some prize--” she pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I’ve always dreamed of getting far away, but not like this.” 

“I hear that,” Chaeyoung sighed. “I’m scared too, and I’ve been really scared, but I’ve also been completely alone. I can’t help but hope now that you’re here. It’s just nice to see another face. Unless I’m dreaming? I do dream about pretty girls sometimes,” she teased, hoping to get that smile back on Mina’s face. 

Mina blushed and laughed into her hand. “I’m real, silly. I bet you dream of more useful girls than me.” She blushed harder and tucked her hair behind her ears. “I’m just Mina. I can sing and dance and look pretty in dresses, and not much else. Twenty-three years old and this is who I am.”

“I’m twenty-one and I’ve never been far from home either. Hey, listen, you got here. I don’t know you, and I know we just met, but all we have is each other right now, okay? I’ve seen a lot of stupid people in my life, and you’re not one of them. I can tell.” Chaeyoung tried to put all the sincerity she could into her voice. “I don’t know anything about this place either. And I’m an artist, not a mechanic. I can draw, and sing, and yeah, I can fly a ship, but that doesn’t mean I can do much else. But we’re two smart girls and we have each other now.” 

“Okay,” Mina said, straightening her back and blinking away the last of her tears. “Sorry, you’re right. I can’t just give up. I can explore a little, see if there’s anything around here? I’m your unnie, I need to take care of you.” She took a deep breath and smiled at Chaeyoung. It was a weak smile, and she was clearly still terrified, but Chaeyoung was blinded by her braveness and her beauty. “I’ll go out into the forest. There has to be more here than just this.”

It was a good idea, and exactly what she had wanted, but Chaeyoung was suddenly nervous to let Mina out of her sight. She hadn’t seen anyone else in so long. “Um. Okay. Maybe just start with exploring the outside of the dome? Haha, maybe there is an escape hatch.” 

There wasn’t an escape hatch. Mina carefully explored the area directly around the dome, feeling around in the brush with her hands, quiet and careful. Chaeyoung couldn't help staring at her, rather than keeping her eyes out for anything that could help them. She didn’t realize how starved for human company she was; just seeing Mina brought tears to her eyes and made her near-frantic to escape. 

“There’s nothing,” Mina sighed. “Have you seen anyone since you got stuck here?’

Chaeyoung shook her head. “There is some kind of AI that keeps talking to me. It’s replicated parts of my ship ‘for my comfort’--” Chaeyoung rolled her eyes-- “but it can’t really answer any of my questions.” 

_”The simulation is provided for your comfort,”_ the voice said, on cue. 

Mina looked startled for a second, then frowned. 

“That’s creepy,” she said. 

“You’re telling me. I wish I knew how to reason with it.”

Mina shook her head. “I feel like I've seen this kind of AI before. Not used like this, but on a cruise ship. It's used as a servant of sorts. You tell it to get you towels, or a drink, or ask it to change the ambient temperature of the room, but it's not a lot smarter than that. Ask it to increase the ambient temperature two degrees.”

“Hey, can you increase the temperature in here two degrees?” Chaeyoung yelled.

“Ambient temperature raised two degrees,” the voice intoned. 

Mina sat up, looking excited. “Yes! That's it, it’s the exact same voice, like, the _exact_ same. I bet it's not really intelligent and it's definitely not the thing that's keeping you here. It's an automatic protocol. I bet you got trapped here by accident.” 

“I'm not sure that’s better though,” Chaeyoung said, chewing on the side of her thumbnail. “What if I'm stuck in here and you're stuck out there forever?”

Mina slumped down again. “I can’t believe this happened,” she said, almost too quiet for Chaeyoung to hear. “If I hadn't left that party…” She sighed. 

“Why did you leave?” Chaeyoung asked. Mina looked so sad, and Chaeyoung had the terrified vision of having to sit there and watch her get sadder and quieter until-- until-- Chaeyoung pushed that thought out of her head. “You said you were fighting with your father?’

Mina nodded. “He wanted to marry me off to some horrible girl. She was pretty enough, I guess, but she was mean and awful and made fun of me for being quiet and shy. We needed her money, which just gave her another reason to be cruel to me in private. My father wouldn’t listen; he kept brushing me off, saying it wasn’t that bad. Finally, I snapped at him and we argued. I ran out into the garden, and-- hm.” She frowned, thinking. 

“What? Do you remember something?”

“I think,” Mina said slowly, “There was some kind of translocation pad hidden in the garden. I was so upset, I didn’t notice it, but I do remember tripping on something before I ended up here.”

Chaeyoung nodded. They’d had things like that where she was from as well, cleverly hidden translocation pads in gardens or secluded nooks in houses. They were popular for secret meetings between lovers or politicians or criminals, but they typically didn’t send you much further than a few hundred kilometers. There was usually a predetermined location for those kinds of short-range translocators, like a safe house or another garden. Not another planet. 

“It’s so silly,” Mina said, looking down and trying, futilely, to brush the dirt off her hem. “My one big adventure and I got here by tripping and falling. And now--” she pressed her lips together, not saying what Chaeyoung had already been thinking. _And now I'm going to die here._

Mina smiled, clearly fake, but still soft and beautiful. _That girl was an idiot_ , Chaeyoung thought. _If I had the chance to marry her, I'd make sure nothing messed it up._

“So that's my story,” Mina said, shrugging. She smiled again, more sincerely, and Chaeyoung's breath caught in her throat. “Not as exciting as yours, i’m sure. Are you the captain of a ship? You’re so young.” She bit her lip and looked up at Chaeyoung through her lashes. “You must be very brave.”

Chaeyoung sighed, slumping down even further, letting her head drop between her hands for a second before looking up again. “Not exactly.” There was no point in pretending now. “My mom is the general in charge of the Chomian fleet. I'm her oldest daughter, and she’d always planned for me to take over, join the military. But I'm-- I wanted to be an artist. I didn’t care about drills and weapons, and discipline, and-- I don’t know.” She smiled a little at the memory. “Mom always called me her little dreamer.” 

“And she forced you to enlist?” Mina asked. 

Chaeyoung shook her head. “No. The date was coming up for my entrance exam to join the officers’ corps and I didn’t want to do it. It was the last thing I wanted, I was terrified of that being my whole life for the rest of my life. But I didn't want to disappoint my mom, and I couldn't talk to her about it so I just-- panicked. Ran away. I just wanted a little time to think, or maybe I was hoping she’d notice how upset I was. I got lost after a few days and I ended up here.” She smiled at Mina. “So I guess you could say I tripped and fell too.”

They looked at each other, the moment stretching out long and heavy between them. Chaeyoung wanted nothing more than to reach through the barrier and hug her. Mina looked for a second like she was about to cry, her eyes big and round, welling with moisture in the moonlight. 

And then the moment was gone, Mina straightened her shoulders and lifted her head. “We have to get out of here,” she said firmly, standing up and shaking out her skirts. “And it’s not going to happen just sitting around. I’m going to go a little deeper into the forest, just around the perimeter, and if I can’t find anything, I'll do another sweep. Just two, then I'll come back, okay?”

Chaeyoung nodded. She really didn’t want Mina to go, but she was right, they weren’t going to get anywhere but just staying together. “Hurry back, unnie,” she said, wrapping her arms around her knees tightly. “And be careful.” 

Mina smiled and waved, then hiked up her skirts and walked into the shining, gleaming, bright forest beyond. 

The dome had no chronometer inside it; none of the displays were functional or made any sense, so Chaeyoung didn’t even bother trying to track how long Mina had been gone. She had the thought to maybe try to organize and pack her things, but then she felt like that might be tempting fate. So she waited, sketching the curve of Mina’s nose, her eyes. It was so unreal that the first person to find her, after days of hoping and fearing that someone would, looked like a princess from her childhood stories. 

She was such a dreamer. Mom was right. Chaeyoung tried to push thoughts of anything but escape out of her head as she sketched. And waited. The moon set and dawn began creeping through the forest. 

The first sign of Mina coming back was movement in the forest, bright vines twisting and turning out of her way as she came crashing through the undergrowth, waving her arms. 

“I found something! There's a place-- a little over that way!’ She pointed behind her, like that direction meant anything to Chaeyoung, but it didn’t have to. She found something!

“What? What is it?” Chaeyoung pressed herself against the barrier, as if she could push her way through. 

Mina wiped the sweat away from her forehead. “There’s a clearing over there, and more of those consoles, like the ones in there.” She pointed inside the dome. “And the vines-- the trees-- they _are_ mechanical. Or maybe biomechanical, but either way, they're powering the consoles. They're...they're growing inside, all tangled up in the circuitry.” 

“And no people?”

“No, it looked completely abandoned. There were some buildings further off, and it looked like there were more structures beyond that, and something big, like a hangar maybe? But that was really far away and I didn’t want to leave you too long. Everything looked old and broken down and there were no people.” Mina’s smile broke across her face. “Maybe I can find food and water, at least.” 

“That’s so good! Oh, I hope so. And do you think the consoles have to do with the dome?” Chaeyoung whispered, looking behind her. She still didn’t trust that AI. 

Mina nodded. “They were the only things I saw that looked active and running. I could be wrong, but. I don’t think so.” She lifted her skirts off the ground. “I’m going to go back and explore more, I just wanted to let you know because I didn’t want you to worry.” 

Chaeyoung clapped her hands. This was the first sign that they might get out of this damn place. “Okay, I won’t worry if you’re gone long. Just-- come back before dark? That way I’ll know you’re safe.” 

“I hope we can both be out of here before then.” Mina looked tired, but happy. 

“Unnie--” Chaeyoung called out as Mina started to turn away. Mina looked back. “Did you find any food or water?”

Mina shook her head. “Nothing that I saw, but I didn’t really look.” 

“Please make sure to look,” Chaeyoung urged. “I want unnie to be safe too.” 

Mina smiled and waved and hurried back into the forest.

It was hard, waiting. Chaeyoung didn’t know if she should pack, or prepare, or even what she could possibly _do_ to prepare, but she decided to just go about her day like she normally would. She cleaned herself completely in the sanitary facilities, then did her makeup, taking extra care to make herself look pretty. She wasn’t even going to pretend that she wasn’t trying to look good for Mina. She ate the meal that appeared at its scheduled time, pocketing an energy bar and juice pouch for Mina in case she was able to get Chaeyoung out but couldn’t find food. 

And then she sat, facing the part of the forest where Mina had disappeared. And she waited some more. 

She’d sketched most of a tree and several of the neighboring plants when suddenly, an alarm started blaring. 

_System breach alert, system breach alert--”_

Chaeyoung shot to her feet, her heart in her throat. She wrapped her arms around herself, not sure where to look. A red light started pulsing over the largest console. 

_System bre-- system-- systemmmmmm--alerrrgtdghgnzzz_

The voice warbled, broken and warped, until it fizzled out with a gargling hiss. The lights flickered. Chaeyoung looked out toward the forest and held her breath as the dome blinked. Once, then faster, until an arc of energy flashed across its surface, and then the entire dome disappeared. 

Chaeyoung had long enough to notice the wave of warmth -- the climate here was apparently much warmer than the precisely controlled interior of the dome -- before she grabbed her stuff and ran for it, not stopping until she skidded to a halt in front of the nearest tree. She crouched down, hiding behind it, just in case there was a guard called, or some kind of defense system in the dome, but there was only silence. The interior of the dome stayed up for a moment, then another arc of energy flew out of one console, and the whole thing flickered, and it all disappeared, leaving only a metal ring in the ground, the size of the circumference of the dome. 

It was technology that Chaeyoung had never seen before. She had no idea how it worked, or even how things like that were even done. Her mom probably knew. God, Chhaeyoung missed her so much. _I’m coming home_ , she mentally promised. 

Without the dome to orient her, Chaeyoung wasn’t exactly sure which two trees hid the path to the clearing that Mina had found, but she kept her eyes trained in the general direction until she saw Mina emerging, breathless, from the forest. She looked worried, then shocked as she saw the spot where the dome had been, and then Chaeyoung couldn’t see anything because there were tears in her eyes and she was running, running, running toward Mina. She couldn’t think about anything else, like playing it cool or the fact that they had just met each other, she leapt right at her and hugged her around the waist. 

“Oh!” Mina said, sounding choked up herself. “Oh, you’re safe, I was so worried.” She wrapped her arms around Chaeyoung and rested her cheek on top of her head. They stood there like that for a moment, just breathing in the warm forest air, bodies close, and Chaeyoung felt true hope and comfort for the first time in days. 

“I wasn’t sure what I was doing,” Mina murmured. “I couldn’t read whatever the language was; I had to follow what I could with the diagrams on the screen. The vines-- there were places for them to attach, and I cleared out the ones that were stuck. Honestly, I was just trying to break whatever was powering it.”

“You did,” Chaeyoung said, pulling away slightly. “You did it, the whole thing disappeared in like, a second. You’re so awesome, unnie!” She stepped back and clasped Mina’s hands, just smiling at her. Then she remembered. “Oh, I got this for you.” She reached in her bag and pulled out a pouch of juice and the energy bar.

“Thank you,” Mina said, tearing open the package. She ate and drank quickly, then smiled at Chaeyoung, holding out her hand. “Want to go check out the hanger?”

“Do I ever.” Chaeyoung pulled her hand, tugging her toward the forest. “One good thing about growing up as the kid of an intergalactic general, I can fly pretty much anything. If we find anything that’s mostly functional, we can get out of here.”

"It's not far." Mina pushed through the brush. "There's kind of -- do you see it? The path?" 

Chaeyoung didn't, not at first, but then she could see how there were more bioluminescent flowers along the ground, patches of glowing purple planted along a somewhat straight line. The forest had grown over since then, but the flowers were still bright enough to follow. They walked along the flower path until the trees parted and they came to another clearing, similar to the one the dome had been in. 

“Wow, this place is old,” Chaeyoung said, looking around. All the buildings were domed, with circular windows and arched doors. They were made of metal and clearly unused for a long time, rusted in spots, with the biomechanical vines grasping up many of the sides, poking into the windows. In one building, the growth of the vegetation had, over time, pulled one side of one of the doorways outward, like a crooked smile. 

Everything was silent. And empty. 

“Here’s the console that was working.” Mina showed her to one of the domes. Inside were several consoles, round, cup-like chairs, and the basics of what looked like a workspace -- a seating area, several official-looking signs in a language that Chaeyoung couldn’t read. Mina pointed to the console, which was now as dead as the rest of them, the vines limp and lifeless from where Mina had ripped them away. 

“This place is creepy,” Chaeyoung said, shivering. “Let’s get out of here, I just want to be gone. You’ve looked in all the buildings?”

“Yeah, they’re all empty. Nothing else seems to be working and there aren’t any signs of people or bodies or anything.” Mina said, wrapping her arms around herself. “The hangar is further back, come on, let’s go.” 

She led Chaeyoung through the spooky, empty -- town? It didn’t look like a town to Chaeyoung, it looked more like a military base of some sort. She knew what that looked like, the precision and utilitarianism. It may have been alien, but she knew what she was looking at. It was something she’d seen too many times on too many different worlds. Most of the signs were in a language she didn’t know, but there was the occasional word or two in Standard Galactic. HYGIENE AREA. FOOD. CONTAINMENT.

The hangar was set slightly on the outskirts of the collection of buildings. It was massive, big enough that Chaeyoung couldn’t see the back end of it as they approached. There was a sign on the front in the language that was all over this place, then another language below it, and then in Standard Galactic, ALIEN TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH. 

“So it’s a scientific research area, not a military base,” Chaeyoung said, pointing at the sign. “Or, maybe both.” She shivered. “I guess I was the lab animal?”

The door was busted, the metal crumpled like a piece of paper, with vines creeping up and into the gaps left behind. It was huge, easily big enough to fit several intergalactic vessels on top of each other, and the folds in the metal were big enough that Chaeyoung and Mina were able to clamber up and work their way into the gaps. Mina had a hard time because of her dress, which kept getting caught on the jagged edges.

“Come on,” Chaeyoung urged, holding out her hands and pulling Mina up into the last gap. There was a loud tearing sound as a strip of her dress ripped free, but Mina just laughed, stumbling into Chaeyoung’s arms. 

“I can’t wait to get out of this thing,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m tired of being dressed up like a doll.” 

They climbed through the folded metal, careful not to scrape their legs, and then there was--

Light. 

The hangar wasn't completely dark like Chaeyoung had expected. She blinked, trying to make sense of what was in front of her. Mina put her hand on Chaeyoung's shoulder, steadying herself as she stepped down from the wrecked door. "What is this place?" she whispered. 

Chaeyoung could only shake her head. The hangar was easily 100 meters tall and half a kilometer long, maybe more. And the entire thing was filled, top to bottom, with spacecraft. Long, thin cruisers and massive cargo carriers and pleasure crafts and snipers and bulky battleships and basic commuters, all piled up on top of each other. Once Chaeyoung's eyes adjusted to the chaos, she realized that some ships were lined up neatly along pre-painted lines, but those had been long crushed under the weight of the ships that were on top of them, teetering and towering like a junk pile. The light was coming from the back of the hangar. It looked like daylight. 

"How did...how could these land like this?" Mina asked. She reached out, and Chaeyoung took her hand. "You couldn't even -- a crane wouldn't fit." 

She was right; it didn't make sense. The ships were all on top of each other like they'd been stacked by a giant, careless child. The bottom ships were almost completely flattened, but Chaeyoung could tell they were much older, from maybe 50, 60 years ago. She looked closer, walking slowly and carefully up to a little messenger shuttle, lodged between a freighter and a military scout ship. 

"Careful," Mina said, not letting go of Chaeyoung's hand and letting herself be led forward. 

The front glass cockpit was cracked and partly shattered, but the craft was mostly intact. Chaeyoung peered inside. "Is there a body?" Mina asked nervously. 

"No. There's nothing." She moved to the next ship, and the next ship, and the next one. No bodies, no blood, no sign of any beings that once piloted these ships. "This doesn't make sense."

"How could a ship get here without a pilot?" Mina wondered. 

Chaeyoung turned around, excited. "Wait-- do you think this is what happened to my ship? I got sent to the dome and my ship got transported here?"

"Maybe," Mina said, but Chaeyoung pulled her along to the back, excitement lifting the exhaustion from her body. People in one place, ships in another. It made sense. She didn’t want to think about what might have happened to the people who were there before here, or how that AI had dealt with them.

They darted from one ship to the next, following the light as it grew brighter and brighter. 

It soon became obvious where the light was coming from; as they moved along, the ships were packed tighter and tighter, sometimes tight enough that it buckled the top of the hangar, letting the sunlight beam through in certain places. 

As they moved through, Chaeyoung became more and more convinced that she was right. The carefully laid out lines on the hangar floor were clearly where the oldest ships were. They had been transported there and left. Something happened to the inhabitants here - war? disease? - and they left, but the beam that had trapped her ship kept dragging others in unchecked. On autopilot. So the ships just piled up and piled up, until they filled the hangar and then just--

“Oh!” Mina gasped, looking down. Chaeyoung looked down as well, and there was dirt under her feet, not the hard, tiled floor of the hangar. 

They had finally reached the end, ducking and weaving through crafts that were packed so tightly there was barely any space for them to get through. It was hard to see exactly what was going on until they got a little further out, the warm sun and fresh air on their skin, but as the packed ships gave way to open space, it was clear. The pressure of the ships piling up and piling up unchecked had busted down the rear door of the hangar. Ships spilled out like toy models, trailing sideways and upside down and teetering on each other, nose to wing, into the clearing behind the hangar. 

“Since I was the last to get here, wouldn’t my ship be outside? Probably?” Chaeyoung asked, scanning the scene around them. 

“I wonder what happened to all these other people,” Mina said quietly. “In all these other ships.”

“I don’t want to stick around long enough to find out. Or at least, I don’t think there’s anything the two of us can do about it. We can get word to my mom and she can send people to investigate.” Chaeyoung looked around. “If we see anyone, we can grab them. Otherwise, there’s no point in us getting stuck too.”

“That’s the last thing I want.” Mina made a face. “And hopefully I disabled whatever it was that was bringing people here.”

Chaeyoung hoped so too, but at this point she just wanted out. She practically sprinted alongside a massive intergalactic pleasure cruiser, running and running until she saw--

“There!” She shaded her eyes and looked up, her heart in her throat. 

Balancing on the rear deck of the cruiser, there she was. Chaeyoung’s baby. A little transport ship, a few years out of date, with one panel that was a different color than the rest, and, in Chaeyoung’s eyes, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life. 

Mina’s hand touched her cheek and Chaeyoung realized she was crying. “God,” she choked out. “Let’s _go_.”

It took a bit to get up there, especially with Mina’s dress, but they made it together. Stepping inside the cockpit made Chaeyoung want to fall on her knees in relief. She was worried that there was something wrong with her ship, that the beam had permanently disabled it somehow, but it started up right away. 

“The nav systems are weird,” she said, frowning at the controls. “I think it’s something about the planet’s atmosphere.” 

“Or all the biomechanical entities?” Mina suggested. 

“Or that,” Chaeyoung agreed. “Sit down and strap in. Once we’re in orbit, you can grab some of the spare clothes in the back, next to the hygiene pod. It’s pretty basic, but you’ll be clean and comfortable.” 

“I can’t wait,” Mina said exhaustedly, slumping into the chair. “Let’s go.”

Chaeyoung set the controls, sent up a prayer of thanks, and they lifted into the sky.

******  
“This is so much better.” Mina stepped out of the hygiene area and-- well. Chaeyoung knew she was going to change into better clothes and she knew, theoretically, that those clothes would be more fitted, but seeing the curve of her calves and thighs in those shiny silver pants was um. Really distracting. The tight sleeveless top wasnt low cut, thankfully, but it was clear that Mina had some strength. In her arms. Arm muscles. They were good. And now they were safe and secure and the fact that Chaeyoung was going to be alone with her for days was just starting to sink in.

Chaeyoung blinked hard a few times and shook her head. “More comfortable?” she asked, spinning around to check the controls that she had already checked three times. “I bet it's easier to move in. And sleep in.” She winced and shut her mouth. _Don't think about sleeping_ she told herself fervently. She had already remembered the one sleeping cot and was trying hard not to think about it. 

“Oh yes,” Mina said from behind her, sounding happy. “I could barely move in that stupid dress.” 

“Good, that’s good.” Chaeyoung turned to the controls. “We’re about ten days’ travel from my home, but only six from yours. I can drop you off first?” She didn’t like the idea of leaving Mina, not when she just met her. 

“We’re that close?” Mina frowned. “I’ve never heard of this place, it doesn’t make sense.” 

“Yeah, I was wondering that too, until I realized where we were.” Chaeyoung pointed to the map. “I was always told to avoid this area because there was a wormhole that messed up the gravitational pull of the stars in this sector. It was unstable and dangerous and ships would fly in and never get out.”

“Do you think we flew into the wormhole? We could be anywhere.” Mina scanned the map, frowning.

“That’s just it, I don’t think there is a wormhole. I think there’s whatever was going on with this planet, where they kept capturing ships, and it was either explained away as a wormhole or it was covered up somehow. I don’t know. I can ask my mom.” She smiled at Mina. “If you give me your contact info, I can let you know the whole story, as long as it isn’t classified.” Her heart squeezed at the thought of Mina being so far away from her, so soon. She’d only known her for a few hours, but it felt like so much more. 

Escaping from near-certain death had that effect, Chaeyoung guessed. 

Mina sat down next to her. She looked nervous and reached out like she was going to take Chaeyoung’s hand, then pulled back again. Chaeyoung reached out, summoning her boldness, and clasped Mina’s hand in her own. They had held hands earlier, but Chaeyoung was too scared to notice anything. Now she felt how smooth and warm Mina’s skin was, the flutter of her pulse under her wrist, the slight jagged edge of one nail. “Chaeyoung-ah,” Mina said, tightening her hand around Chaeyoung’s for a second, “is it okay if I come with you? Just for a bit. My father-- he’s really awful. And he’s going to keep trying to marry me off to that girl, and I just. I’d rather stay with you. I’m sorry, I know it’s a lot to ask, and we just met each other, but I-- I don’t want to go home just yet.”

Chaeyoung looked at her, a light, ecstatic feeling warring with sadness over Mina’s situation. “Oh my gosh, yeah, of _course_ , you can stay with me, unnie. We have so many spare rooms. And I don’t want you to go back to your dad, and I-- I don’t want you to leave me yet. I like having you around.” Her heart was pounding in her throat. 

“Is your mom going to be mad?” Mina asked in a quiet voice. She looked really worried, and Chaeyoung remembered how nervous she looked when she talked about her father. 

“Yeah, but it’s because she’s probably really worried about me.” Chaeyoung sighed, playing with Mina’s fingers. “She’s strict in a lot of ways and I don’t think she always understands me, but she loves me a lot. I bet she has ships out looking for me everywhere." She checked the readings, more for something to do than anything else. The silence was a little uncomfortable now that she just had to make small talk with Mina, without the whole death-and-imminent-escape part of it, and after confessing at least part of her feelings. "We should be getting into an area her fleet usually patrols in a couple of days. Someone should pick us up by then. And then we can get you home at any time, if you need to go back."

"I'm not in a rush." Mina shrugged, looking down. "Honestly...if I go back home, he's just going to make me marry some other horrible woman. And lock me up in that big, fancy house like some kind of a doll until he can hand me off to someone else." She straightened up, shook her hair back, and looked Chaeyoung right in the eyes. "Even though it was scary, I'm glad I fell into that transporter pad. I'm glad I escaped. And I'm really, really glad I met you. You're really brave and dashing and beautiful and if I hadn't left that stupid party, I would never have met you." 

Chaeyoung felt frozen. Everything was numb and her face burned. Beautiful, brave, amazing Mina was calling _her_ beautiful and brave? She couldn't take it anymore. Dropping out of her chair and onto her knees, Chaeyoung took Mina's hand and held it to her chest. "Unnie?" she asked, willing her voice not to shake. "Can I kiss you?" 

Mina nodded, a radiant smile breaking out over her face.

Chaeyoung knelt up as Mina bent down and carefully pressed her lips to hers. Mina laid her hand aside Chaeyoung’s face, holding her still, as their kiss deepened. “My beautiful rescuer,” Mina whispered. “I’m so glad I met you. You saved me.”

“Are you kidding?” Chaeyoung laughed. She didn’t want to talk, only kiss, so she got brave and kissed the side of Mina’s jaw and down her neck. “You saved me, unnie. Or we saved each other. Now stop talking and kiss me again.”

“I think I can do that,” Mina said, and kissed Chaeyoung until she could barely breathe, as they soared through the stars, finally free.


End file.
